Fruit Cake Bars

To start the year right, I offer you -- fruit cake bars -- these are sweet, so that you can always look forward to a good and nice and sweet year ahead. These are full of fruits, so that your year may be "fruitful" or bountiful. The taste is mellow, so that you may have a peaceful year ahead.

This recipe is far, far different from the traditional heavy and dense fruit cake. It tastes like fruit cake, with fruits soaked in liquor, but the texture is softer and lighter, and a bit crumbly and moist, just the way we like it. Daughter was crestfallen when she learned that I was giving most of the pieces away (boxed as Christmas gifts) to friends. But of course I made several batches and there were lots of leftovers :) for her to enjoy.

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.


1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 C brandy
5 cups assorted dried fruits (I used raisins, dried mangoes, dried jackfruit, dried cranberries, dried apricots
2 C packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 t pure vanilla extract
confectioner's sugar, for dusting




1. In a saucepan, heat brandy until simmering. Remove from heat and stir in fruits. Cool to room temperature. Toss brandied fruits with 1 C flour.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Brush a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter. Line with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

4. With the mixer on low, add in the remaining 1 C flour, and salt. Mix until just combined. Fold in fruit mixture, transfer batter to prepared pan. Smooth top.

5. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 1 hour.

6. Using the paper overhang, lift out of the pan, transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

7. Remove paper. Dust with confectioner's sugar. Cut into squares with a serrated knife.





Dried fruits are the main feature of these cake bars. Drying the fruits preserves the fruits, even without refrigeration, thus prolonging their shelf life. However, I think many people enjoy dried fruits because of the flavor. Since they are dehydrated, the fruit flavor becomes more intense. Like fresh fruits, dried fruits still has their Vitamin B and mineral content. However, vitamin C is usually lost in the drying process.

You can actually use a variety of dried fruits, in any flavor and in any combination you prefer for your fruit cake bars. Just have a total of 5 cups of assorted fruits. At the beginning, I thought it was way too much, but it turned out just right. If you noticed, I added lots of dried mangoes and dried jackfruit. These two fruits added the tropical touch to my fruit cake bars. Philippines is of course famous for our dried mangoes. It is often brought as a pasalubong (welcome gift) to friends and families abroad.



Sharing these delightful fruit bars to the Weekend Herb Blogging community, created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, but now headed by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once. This week's host is Pam from the Backyard Pizzeria. To see last week's delicious herbs and dishes, please see the round-up done by Haalo here.

Dulce De Leche Cheesecake

Hmmm... Dulce de Leche "Sweet Milk" made into a cheesecake. The ultimate sweet for this family. This is another cheesecake made by my fourth and fifth sisters. I will take the advice of my sweet friend Wiffy at Noobcook, she says, "eat first, diet later" just for this delicious sweet treat. :)

To ease guilt: the only guilty ingredient in this cheesecake is the sugar! Cheesecake and milk are good sources of calcium and other vitamins and minerals found in dairy. Ok, I am convinced. :)

Dulce de leche is a milk-based syrup, that can easily be prepared by slowly heating up sweetened condensed milk to create a syrup that is similar to caramel. Wiki-How gives us complete step by step instructions and several methods on how to prepare Dulce De Leche. Sisters used the first method, same as what they did when they made Banoffee Pie.

To make the dulce de leche. Remove the label from a large can of condensed milk. Boil and simmer the whole unopened can covered in water for 3 hours. (To economize, you can boil several cans at the same time. And use the other cans for the next recipe requiring dulce de leche.) When you open this "boiled" can of condensed milk, it becomes the creamy dulce de leche!

To make the cheesecake crust, mix crushed graham crackers with melted butter. Press this mixture into the spring-form pan. Press it well and up to the sides. Set aside.


For the cheesecake:

3 packs (8 oz each) Cream Cheese
1 C sugar
2 T flour

2 t vanilla
3 eggs
1/3 C fresh milk
1/2 C Dulce de Leche

more Dulce De leche for topping, as desired


1. In an electric mixer, combine softened cream cheese with the sugar and the flour. Beat very well.

2. Add in the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Add in the milk and vanilla. Mix well.

3. Combine the half cup of dulce de leche with half cup of the cheesecake batter mix.

4. Pour the plain batter into the crust. Swirl dulce de leche-cheesecake mixture into the plain cheesecake batter using a fork.

5. Bake 325 F on baine marie (water bath) for 45 to 55 minutes or until it tests done in the center.

6. Cool for at least 20 minutes before topping with more dulce de leche.

7. Refrigerate before serving. It is actually best served the next day.



Am sharing this deliciously sweet Dulce de Leche with Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen who is celebrating her first year in blogosphere with the Sweet Celebrations event. Happy Bloggerversary Aparna! May your kitchen continue to churn out yummy and healthy dishes throughout the coming years! Looking forward to more bloggerversaries to come!!!

NY Style Pumpkin Cheesecake

photo taken by Daughter :)

It is time once again for Wandering Chopstick's Weekend Wokking. This is truly an exciting challenge as we get to see the different ways we can cook one ingredient. For this month, Precious Pea chose Pumpkin! It is very fitting by the way, because I know it is pumpkin season in America.

However, here in the Philippines, we do not really grow pumpkins! At least the ones you are familiar with in the western world. We have the local pumpkin we call kalabasa. This veggie is available whole-year round. And we do not really carve these pumpkins. Actually, I do not consider these as pumpkins, Kalabasa is more like squash. When I googled, to try to learn more about the difference, I learned that there are many varieties of squash. Pumpkin is one variety of squash. Our local kalabasa is another.

Being true to the pumpkin challenge, I have no alternative but to use the canned variety - which is easily available here. But I do not want to make a pie. At first I thought about making muffins, but another baking event already did that. I also wanted to make a dessert that my family will love. We are cheesecake fans, so cheesecake it is.


For the Crust:

1 C graham crackers, crushed
sprinkling of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
6 T melted butter


For the Filling:

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 C brown sugar
1 C canned solid-packed pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
2 T all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt
sprinkling of cinnamon, ginger powder, nutmeg and cloves


1. Mix the crushed graham crackers with the spices and the melted butter. Press into a 9 inch- spring-form pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Preheat oven to 350F.

3. In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, pumpkin puree, flour, spices and salt. Mix until combined. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well each time.

4. Pour into the prepared pan with crust. Bake baine-marie in the oven for 1 hour or until the cheesecake is set.

5. Cool in pan or chill overnight before serving. Cut with a knife dipped in water. Serve as is or topped with ice cream, a dollop of cream, or decorate with candy sprinkles.






Hubby said my cheesecake look better plain (see the first picture). What do you think? I just wanted to decorate with the new autumn-inspired sprinkles that 5th sister gave me. :) The cheesecake tastes great, by the way. But maybe it's just us. We love any kind of cheesecake.

One last note: Whenever I try to bake a NY style cheesecake before, I never included flour. The center of the cheesecake always turns out "sunken." The top of the cheesecake does not turn out even. Last week, my sisters and I were able to taste a cheesecake from a popular coffee chain. We were wondering why the cheesecake top was nicely straight and evenly baked, not like the cheesecake we make at home. When we tasted their cheesecake, the taste was lacking in cheesecake flavor, it tasted like they added lots of flour. So, when I made today's version of cheesecake, I thought of adding some flour just for experiment, so added just two tablespoon of flour (for 2 bars of cheesecake). And look! The cheesecake did not sink at the center! The top was flat and evenly baked! So, that was the secret! And the cheesecake still tastes great! No floury taste at all. :)



Sharing this pumpkin cheesecake with the Weekend Wokking food event. It is a worldwide event created by Wandering Chopsticks to see the many different ways we can cook one ingredient. The ingredient for the month is Pumpkin! The host this month is me! So please check in by Wednesday for the round up of many delicious ways we can cook the pumpkin. I have received so many delicious entries already - both savoury and sweet. You can still join in the fun! I will wait for your recipes until Tuesday. To see previous round-ups, please click here. Next month's host will be Wiffy of Noobcook and you have to check back here on Wednesday to know what is the secret ingredient next month :)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Filling and Strawberry Cream Frosting

I apologize for the long title. I do not know what else to call these cupcakes. I wanted to differentiate these cupcakes from the other usual chocolate cupcakes. Besides, these are very special cupcakes, at least in the eyes of my little family. Because these are the birthday cupcakes of my daughter. (Her birthday was two weeks ago, but I have been posting the dishes we had on her birthday one by one...)

These cupcakes are produced by the joint effort of fourth sister and fifth sister. Yup. I did not bake these goodies... They baked the cupcakes at my mother's house (where they live) and then frosted and decorated the cupcakes here at my house (where we celebrated Daughter's birthday). They even brought cupcake holders!





The recipe is loosely based on the Belgian Chocolate Cupcakes found at the Yummy Magazine, Oct 2007 issue. Tweaks made: Sisters added the chocolate cream filling, the strawberry cream frosting and they did not use Belgian chocolate, as we prefer bittersweet.


For the cupcakes:

1/2 C butter, melted
100 gms bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 C butter, softened
1 and 1/4 C sugar
2 eggs
2 T cocoa powder
1 t vanilla
1 and 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C milk


For the chocolate cream filling:
1/2 C all-purpose cream
1 C chopped bittersweet chocolate


For the strawberry cream frosting:
1 C strawberry flavored cream, well-chilled
1/4 C caster sugar



1. Prepare the chocolate filling first. Heat the cream in low fire until very hot but not boiling. (You can also use the microwave.) Turn off heat and add in the chopped chocolate pieces. Stir until all the chocolate pieces are melted and everything is mixed thoroughly. Cool in refrigerator.
When chilled and firm enough to be handled, scoop out chocolate and form into small balls. Arrange on a baking tray and return to the refrigerator until ready to use.

2. To make the cupcake, melt the butter in a small pan. Turn off heat and stir in the chopped chocolate. Whisk until blended and set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare muffin pans by adding cupcake liners.

4. In a mixing bowl, with electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until creamy. Stir in cocoa powder and vanilla.

5. Add the melted chocolate (we prepared in step 2).

6. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir this dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk. Blend until smooth (Do not overbeat.)

7. Scoop into paper-lined muffin pan and fill only half. Put in a chocolate cream ball (we prepared in step 1) in the middle. Then add some more cupcake batter until 3/4 full.

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool before frosting.

9. In a chilled bowl, with chilled paddles of the electric mixer, beat the strawberry cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Do not over-beat. Keep chilled until ready to frost.

10. Using a piping bag, decorate the cupcakes with the strawberry cream. Drizzle with chocolate sprinkles.


Result? Very moist chocolatey cupcakes with melted chocolate cream balls inside!!!

Daughter has to go around the cupcakes to blow all her candles!!!

Here in the Philippines, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving. We do not have an official Thanksgiving holiday. But for most Filipinos, and certainly for this little family, each birthday, and each New Year is already reason enough to celebrate and give thanks to our Creator for another blessed year. So every birthday, family and friends would gather and celebrate the occasion and do something nice for the celebrant. Extra attention is given when the celebrant is celebrating 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 or 100 years old!!!


I am sharing this birthday cupcakes post to the World Food Day - Time to be Thankful event, hosted by Ivy of Kopiaste. The aim of this event is to bring awareness to everyone about the hunger problems that exist around the world and which seem to be getting worse day after day, specially after this huge worldwide economic crisis.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I also teach my kids to be thankful. I live in a Third World country. And yet, I have a very loving family. I have very loving parents, very supportive sisters and brother. I have a super-sweet, loving and patient husband. I have two beautiful and kind kids. I have lots of good friends. I have a loving and supportive church family. I have a house I can call a home. My husband has work. I have work. My kids go to school. We are free to go to Church and worship our God. We are blessed indeed.

Easy Strawberry Muffins

As I have mentioned before, I am less than an amateur baker. But since I love baked desserts, I have to try to learn baking as well. And because I do not have much confidence yet, I try to look for easy recipes. This is one of them.

The original recipe is for blueberry muffins. Actually, I forgot where I got the recipe from. It has long been tucked inside my to-do folder, so I do not remember. Besides, I have made so many changes, the following recipe does not sound like the original anymore. A courageous (or stupid?) move for someone with not much experience in baking. :)

I substituted the blueberries with strawberries. Because that is what I have in my pantry. No harm there. But I used canned strawberries instead of fresh! The original recipe asked for only 1 teaspoon baking powder for 2 cups of flour. But the instruction on my packet of baking powder says to use 1 teaspoon of baking powder for every cup of flour. Which instruction to follow? I followed the one in the packet. I wanted to make sure my cupcakes turn out fluffy and soft. Then, because I wanted the taste and flavor and scent of cinnamon and nutmeg, I added a generous sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, even when the recipe did not call for it! Are these not harmless tweaks? :)

I was always instructed not to change any recipe in baked goods, because baking requires accuracy. But then, these cupcakes turned out pretty delicious! Pretty in pink, as well!



So, I am sharing these easy to prepare strawberry muffins with the Power of Pink, a Challenge by Jen of the Beantown Baker. October being the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are encouraged prepare dishes that are pink, in order to promote awareness of this disease. We should take a more proactive stand against breast cancer. Because this is a highly preventable and curable form of cancer. Do your own monthly self-examination, go through a mammography annually. Read up. Arm yourself with information regarding the disease, its nature, its prevention and cure. It is not to late to start now!



2 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1 C fresh milk
2 T canola oil
1 large egg, beaten
1 C strawberries (canned)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat a non-stick 12-Cup large muffin pans with cooking spray or line with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together.

3. In another bowl, combine milk, canola oil and egg.

4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in half of the strawberries. Reserve 12 strawberries for topping.

5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, top with a strawberry per muffin and bake 20 minutes until golden. Cool on wire rack.



Is this not an easy recipe? No using of mixer, so one less equipment to clean up. You only need two bowls and a spatula. Sounds like a no-fail recipe, too! Perfect for amateur bakers like me who craves for fragrantly baked sweets sometimes.



This is also my inaugural participation to the Sugar High Fridays, with Dessert First doing her inaugural hosting for this "grande dame of online events for sweet-minded bloggers." This month's theme is perfect : Spices for Your Life. And the spices used in these cupcakes are the two spices I cannot get enough of : Cinammon and Nutmeg! Sugar High Fridays is headed by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess. Check out the previous Sugar High Fridays round-ups here.

Orange Crumb Cake with Cinammon Crumb Topping

I did not take the photo above, I mean, I was the one who baked the goodies, but I was not the one who took the shot of that picture. It was my pre-teen daughter! If it was me, the picture would look like this:



I have a thing or two to learn from my daughter as well!!! :)

I had some extra ripe oranges in my refrigerator, and I was wondering what dessert can I make out of these sweet oranges. Before internet days, I would peruse my cookbooks. Nowadays, I would just google... :)

I found this very interesting recipe from About.com (Southern Food). Why is it interesting? Because it is a cake, but you do not need a lot of ingredients - just the basic and common ingredients in our pantry. You do not need a mixer. You just need 2 bowls. And you know what that means? Less utensils to wash! The instructions does not seem complicated. Isn't this ideal !?! Ideal for novice and lazy bakers like me who still craves for a dessert or two. :)

1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C granulated sugar
4 T butter, room temperature
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t baking powder
dash of salt
1 egg
1/2 C orange juice
1 t finely grated orange zest

1. Combine flour, sugar, and butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles meal.

2. Measure half cup of the crumb mixture and move to a separate cup or bowl. Blend in the cinnamon and set aside.

3. To the main crumb mixture, add baking powder and salt; blend well.

4. Beat orange juice with egg until well blended; stir with orange zest into the crumb mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into a greased and floured 8 inch square baking pan.

5. Sprinkle reserved cinnamon-crumb mixture over the batter.

6. Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.


Some tweaks: Have you noticed that whenever we cook or bake something from somewhere, we always have to make some little tweaks ? I do not think we deliberately change something, just to make the recipe more "ours." I think it is more to do with what ingredients we have on hand, or what tastes our families prefer.

1. I used freshly squeezed orange juice, as that is what I have on hand. I used 1 orange for the recipe. To make half-cup of juice, I added only a few tablespoons of water. This is why my cake is not too sweet. If this was made from ready-made orange juice, I think this cake would have been sweeter.

2. I did not use the zest. I have this thing (suspicion) about the skins of fruits being laden with pesticides, and other synthetic chemicals. Sorry, I am obsessive-compulsive in this area. So, what I did was, I added the pulp bits of the squeezed juice. I think the cake still turned out fragrantly orange-y.

3. I added probably 1/4 C topping mixture to the cake because when I added the juice/egg mixture, it turned too watery. Only 1/4 C of crumb topping mixture was left for the toppings.





The verdict? You would love this if you love the fragrant orange with a whiff of cinnamon! For me, this is an ideal snack/dessert. Easy to prepare, no fuss and no mess. Delicious paired with a cup of tea or coffee. It is not too sweet, just the way we like it!



This cake goes to the Bookmarked Recipes community. Bookmarked Recipes is a world-wide foodie event....where anyone from anywhere can blog about a recipe they had bookmarked from a cook book, food magazine, food blog, food website, from TV etc, make it and submit it to a weekly roundup. It is created and regularly hosted by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. For last week's edition, Deeba of Passionate about Baking did a wonderful and beautiful round-up. This week, I will be guest hosting as well. This is my first time to host a food event, I am so excited about it. I hope you can join and play!

Personally, I enjoy taking part in this event and I enjoy reading all the entries. Because these are the recipes carefully picked and chosen by wonderful food bloggers around the world. The recipes have been tried and tested in real kitchens, commented and improved. In other words, these are the weekly compilation of one of the best recipes in the blogosphere!

It is so easy to play! If you have any recipes you got from another source, you cooked it, and want to share your cooking experiences with it, please blog about it and post it between now to Sunday, Sept 21. I will do the round-up on Monday, Sept.22. Of course, this is an ongoing weekly event, so in case, you were not able to participate this week, come join us the following week or the next, or the next... :)


To take part here's what you do.......
1. Pick a recipe from a book/magazine/blog/website/tv show and make it. (Note you can only submit 1 recipe per week)
2. Blog about it
- include where you got the recipe in your blog post (including a link to their website if possible)
- include a link to this post or this blog in your blog post
- include the logo (see above) for Bookmarked Recipes in your blog post
- include a photo of your recreation on your blog post
3. Email bookmarkedrecipes[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the following information:
- Your name and where you're from
- The name of your blog
- The permalink for your entry
- A photo of your entry
- A note of where you got your recipe from


I'll be looking forward to the dishes you're all cooking!!!

Brownie Cupcakes

My heart swells with joy when a friend tells me they have tried cooking my recipes or that they got the recipe from my blog and found them delicious. I guarantee that all the dishes here are produced from my own kitchen and photographed by yours truly. If I get the recipes from other sources, such as those featured in the Bookmarked Recipes, I acknowledge the source and link back to them.

You know, I cook three meals a day and not all of these dishes are featured in this blog. I choose the tried and tested ones (unless otherwise specified), and I talk about my real kitchen experiences and recommendations or improvements that can be done. Most of the time, commenters leave their various food tips too. (I appreciate all the comments and feedbacks! Thank you!)

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you these lovely Brownie Cupcakes that my little (5th) sister (who is not so little anymore) baked, based on my Chocolate Fudge Brownies recipe. I think she made these as a gift for a friend. She told me she followed the exact recipe except that she made it into cupcakes, removed the nuts and instead added frosting on top. It looks so pretty and dainty. She makes a better food stylist that I do! And a better food photographer, too! She said the cupcakes tastes moist and chocolately, just the way she like it. :)

Watch out for more of my sisters' kitchen experiments!

Tiramisu Cake Made Easy

Happy Happy Birthday, my Son! Sometimes I could not believe that it has already been eight years since my baby was born. He grows up too fast his height now reaches my chin. Soon, I know he will grow taller than his mother.

He has always been a sweet baby. He still has a sweet and happy disposition. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he simply said a small birthday cake from me. He even specified a round cake that is "this" (and made gesture with his hand) tall. But I am not good at baking cakes! He said that I am a food blogger now. I should learn to make one, besides that is the reason why he was asking only for a small cake. I think he thought that a small cake is easier to make than a bigger one, which is partially true...

Yesterday I started to check out my baking books for an easy cake recipe to do. My problem is today is a weekday. I do not really have all the time in the world. Then I saw a recipe for Tiramisu Cake that looks yummy and easy to do because it uses a cake mix. I love Tiramisu! Son loves Tiramisu (specially the cream cheese icing) This seems to be a perfect cake to do. I know, I know, I am not being fair to my kid by not baking from scratch. But still, it is a home-made cake baked and decorated with love.

The recipe is taken from Betty Crocker's Cookies Bars and Cakes, Vol7 No1.

for the cake:
1 box supermoist white cake mix (sorry, I did not use Betty Crocker brand)
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil (I used Canola oil)
1/4 C brandy (I used Kahlua coffee liquor)
3 egg whites


for the espresso syrup:
2 T instant coffee granules
1/4 C boiling water
2 T corn syrup (I substituted brown sugar)


for the topping:
1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 C powdered sugar
2 C premium whipping cream
1 T unsweetened baking cocoa


1. Heat oven to 350F (325F for non-stick or silicone pans) Grease bottom of 13 x 9 pan with shortening or cooking spray. I used 2 pcs of 9-inch round pan. (Because my son wanted a round cake.) With 2 cakes, I was able to make layers with cream cheese in between.

2. In a large bowl of the electric mixer, beat cake mix, water, oil, brandy, and egg whites on low speed for 30 sec. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into the pans.

3. Bake 26 to 30 minutes until totthpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes.

4. While waiting, make the espresso syrup. In a small bowl, stir coffee granules and sugar with the boiling water, until mixed. With long tinned fork, pierce top of cake every 1/2 inch. Brush top of cake with espresso syrup. Cool completely, about 1 hour.


5. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with electric mixer on low speed until mixed. Beat on high speed until smooth. Gradually beat in whipping cream, beating on high speed for about 2 minutes or until stiff peaks form.

6. To assemble cake, place one cake on the cake stand or a serving plate. Spread some cream cheese mixture over the top of the cake. Place the other cake on top of this. Spread the rest of the cream cheese mixture on top and around the whole cake. Sprinkle with cocoa powder. Store in the refrigerator.


My son had the honor of slicing his cake...



See the cream cheese filling in the middle? I know, I know... most people would say a real Tiramisu uses Mascarpone cheese! But this is not a gourmet food blog. For this cake, I only have one major customer - a little boy who loves cream cheese. So, for this family, this cake really tasted like what Tiramisu should taste like. It just had the right amount of sweetness - not too sweet for us. It has the coffee and coffee liquor flavor that we love. I will definitely make this again next time. The next time however, I promise to bake the cake base from scratch - a sponge cake or a butter cake perhaps...

Rum Cake Made Easy

I would usually make rum cake with a butter cake base. I would bake a basic butter cake. Then when the cake cools, I would brush the cake with rum glaze.

It just so happens that I discovered cake mixes. There's a white cake mix, a yellow cake mix, also a pre-mix for lemon cake, brownies, devil's food cake and a lot more other kinds of pastries. I think these are wonderful time-savers for those days when you need a dessert but too busy to make from scratch.

Of course, purist and serious bakers would consider using cake mixes a sacrilege! And of course, using cake mixes would take out the joy you really do get out of baking, specially if you are baking as a hobby. However, as I have mentioned, cake mixes can be used to help shorten the time you spend in the kitchen. There's less measurements to do, less ingredients needed, less utensils to wash. Plus cake mixes are so versatile, you can garnish them, add different flavors, make different icings and fillings and you can produce professional looking cakes that can impress your guests or audience.

I was invited to an informal birthday gathering yesterday and I wanted to bring a cake. However, I had several writing deadlines, leaving me less time to putter around in the kitchen. So, I took the easy way out and made rum cake using the yellow cake mix. :)

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 C Bacardi's rum
2/3 C water
1/3 C Canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F (for regular bundt pans). I used a silicone bundt pan so I had to lower the baking temperature to 325F.

2. Grease the baking pan and coat with a little flour.

3. Mix everything up in the cake mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into the baking pan. Bake in the oven for around 30 to 35 minutes, until cake tester inserted in the center comes out dry.

4. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes. Invert the baked cake into a serving platter. Let cool completely before adding the glaze.


Rum Glaze

1/4 C Butter
3 T sugar
2 T water
1/4 C Bacardi Rum

1. Boil butter, water and sugar until sugar is melted and syrupy.

2. Turn off heat. Let cool for a while before adding the rum.

3. When completely cooled, brush rum glaze all over the baked and cooled yellow cake.


I have to confess that I find my butter cakes baked from scratch more fluffy and moist. And of course, the taste is totally different. But still, this is easy baking, isn't it? It can keep in the refrigerator for a longer period of time and the taste will just get better. It is delicious in its own way. Just do not let out that you cheated... hee... hee...

Chocolate Cake

I was intrigued by this cake recipe from the Food magazine. It seems quite simple and easy to make. It does not use eggs nor butter but uses mayonnaise instead. Accordingly, the mayonnaise will make the cake extra moist and delicious. But is it healthier ?

Admittedly, it is easier to do, with less ingredients to mix. It does not need the electric mixer, therefore, one less equipment to clean. So, I tried it and brought it to the Couples@Work Fellowship for the taste test. Wow! Everybody enjoyed it! The taste is chocolately because I used Dutch-processed cococa powder. I also sprinkled some mini-chocolate chips for decoration. Though it was not as moist as I expected ( Maybe I overbaked it? I should lessen the baking time the next time around.)





1 C sugar
1/4 C Cocoa powder
2 t Baking Soda
1 C Mayonnaise
2 C sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 C water
1/2 C milk ( I used fresh milk)
1 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8" x 13" baking pan. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and mayonnaise. Mix well.

3. Add flour, water, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir to blend. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Sprinkle top with mini-chocolate chips, if preferred. Bake for about 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack before serving.